README

About DrQueue
-------------
DrQueue is the Open Source Distributed Render Queue. It is the Open
Source alternative to other propietary products. It has been tested on
renderfarms with more than 200 processors and mixed architectures.
It is a tool under development, though it is being used in production by
many people since it release.
Platforms
---------
DrQueue runs on Linux, Irix, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Windows at the time of this
writing.
render engines
--------------
It can be used with any renderer or application that supports command line (has
been used as well as a distributed compilation tool).
It works with 'job scripts' that every slave executes with varying environment
variables. Those job scripts can be customized to do any other task.
Currently it has 'script generators' (pieces of code that create those scripts
using a base file [etc/*.sg]) for the following software: Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya,
Lightwave, Mental Ray, 3Delight, Pixie, Aqsis, After Effects, Shake, Nuke and Terragen.
It has a "general" (in the sense of generic) kind of job, that you could
use to submit any other script for your tool of choice if not listed, or even if
listed if you want to do it your way.
scriptability
-------------
DrQueue if fully scriptable, through its API one can code complex
distributed systems but out of the box is easily managed by advanced end
users.
It has python bindings that let you use the whole "libdrqueue" functions and
data structures.
So it is possible to write python scripts that "talk" to master and slave nodes giving
you almost unlimited control on the behaviour of the system.
If you're not familiar with python but are interested in programming, I highly recommend
you to give it a try so you can feel by yourself how fast and easy is to write well organized
and powerful object oriented code.
DrKeewee [python/DrKeewee] is written in python. It is a small web server that talks to the
master node and gives you information about the queue status.
online resources (participation)
--------------------------------
In the site http://www.drqueue.org you'll find some resources that are meant
to provide a two-way communication. For example: you'll find documentation trying
to give you some hints, howto's, guides... but they're not nearly complete and updated.
That's why it's a wiki. You can modify or add pages online, through your browser.
If you find out something is wrong, outdated, badly written... you can modify it,
put a note, a warning, whatever could make others save some time.
Improving the site is at your hand too.
Right now you have forums, bugtracker, mailing lists, wiki documentation, repository
browser... and well, if you find the link and works should be there too.
- Feedback
If you're a drqueue user your opinion and feedback is really important. Submit bug reports,
they're the only way to know if the tool behaves properly with so many rendering engines.
As you can imagine, it is not feasible for me to do all tests that are needed to know
if there are any problem with any particular engine, platform or combination of such many
factors related (renderers,platforms,architectures,OS's...).
repository
----------
There is an anonymous subversion repository where you can get the latest
development version. https://ssl.drqueue.org/svn/
irc channel
-----------
Sometimes you'll find some of us at #drqueue in irc.freenode.net
Most of the time channel is idle, please do not write and leave after five minutes
if you received no answer. Be patient.
Authors
-------
DrQueue has been coded and is maintained by Jorge Daza <jorge@drqueue.org>
thanks to the contributions of many people which are listed in the CREDITS file.
DrQueue wouldn't be here without them.